That’s a 44 percent decline in average viewership compared to the record-shattering numbers of “Strikeforce and M-1 Global: Fedor vs. Silva,” which hosted the first quarterfinal matchups of the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix.

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) today confirmed the numbers with an industry source.

The sharp decline isn’t exactly surprising. The card didn’t have nearly the hype and buzz behind it that the heavyweight grand prix show did. I’m sure the Strikeforce and Showtime folks would have liked to duplicate the ratings success they had with “Diaz vs. Cyborg” (averaged 561,000), however that card included Herschel Walker who likely gave it a significant boost in viewership.

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) has learned from industry sources that Bellator 35’s ratings viewership represented an 83 percent increase in men ages 18 to 49 years old, 80 percent rise in men ages 18 to 34 years old and a whopping 133 percent increase in men ages 25 to 34 years old.

There was concern in the community that MTV2 didn’t have the right demographics for Bellator to thrive on the network. Perhaps that was true, but it looks like Bellator managed to bring the target demo’s with them.